The Price Dam is About to Break

Apparently our outside temp of 28 (F) is very close to being our daily high.  Overnight, our low is expected to be in the upper teens.  This means it's wooly blanket time.  And maybe a cup of hot tea while I'm killing aliens and scrappers in Outer Worlds 2.  Things will be warming up.  After this pinch of cold, temps are expected to begin warming up.  That's fine with me.  I don't mind the cold.  But moderate temps are better for my heating bill.

Being that yesterday was Sunday, no workout or rides were planned.  I did work however, and surprisingly managed to sell 2 installs.  That should keep management happy.  I also had to deal with a customer who wanted to pay for a carpet measure and wanted us to give him the measurements.  That's a no.  Room dimensions and square footage are considered proprietary until the customer actually purchases the measure.  I am being paid to sell installations, not the measurements.  There are people, if given the measure documents, who will seek out a cheaper contractor for the installation.  This customer was one of those people and, as a result, he was sorely disappointed.

I had already decided on a picture to post in today's blog and then this popped up in my Facebook feed.  A long time ago, in a land oh... about 30 miles away, I spent some time involved in theater.  Yes, at one point in my life I was a song and dance man.  Thinking about those days makes me laugh, they were a lot of fun.  Anyway, here I am center stage in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.

Being that we did have a weekend, political news was a bit lite.  Rumors are circulating that a number of Republicans from safe are not going to be running for re-election.  While this might seem to imply something, keep in mind that these are so-called Safe Districts, meaning no matter which Republican runs, he or she is most like going to be elected.  Now, if the districts were considered Purple, where a swing either way could happen, then I'd say this is big news.

A rumor also went through social media the John Fetterman was going to be quitting.  Again, this is just a rumor.  Evidently big John wrote a book in which, in one sentence, he said something to the effect that if he'd known what the stroke was going to to do his brain he'd have quit.  Of course, desperate people will always take things out of context.  This is something that the Republicans count on.

And finally, the WaPo had a headline this morning about how Orangie was heading into Biden territory when it came public dissatisfaction with the economy.  Adding to that was another one of their headlines telling people that tariff price increases were about to come home to roost.  This is because leading up to Orangie's tariff war, many retailers bought extra thinking that by this time our trading partners would be ready to throw in the towel.  Well, that isn't happening.  I suspect that a number of them want to break us in two.  Others, like China, have only seen their trade improve greatly.  Get ready for the price dam to break.

It's in the Notes

 Weatherwise, today is going to be pretty much a transitional day into a mini cooling off period.  There will be clouds, but not much temperature variation.  When I got up at 0530 the temp was 46 (F) and, if the forecasters are correct, we'll gain just a few more degrees, climbing into the low to mid 50s (F).  However, a few days from now we should be back up into the 60s (F).

And yesterday was a fairly good day.  Not so much because chores were done, but because I put air in my tires.  Since the compressor at my neighborhood Giant's gas station was working, I went across the street to the Weis Market's gas station.  Wonder of wonders, they don't charge for air.  At Giant you need to pay $1.50.  At Weis, it's free. And so I filled all 4 tires in about 5 minutes... for free.  In case you haven't figured it out yet, Free is mostly always good.  Can you guess where I'll be going from now on when I need air in my tires?

Some writing was done.  That's always a good thing.  My mind is starting to wander towards the next book already.  This can be both a good and a bad thing.  At this point in the process things can slow down because I'm starting to clear up the red herrings, at the same time pre-planning means I'm creatively thing about a totally different plot line.

One of the things I did get done yesterday was some preliminary artwork for The Body in 4:4 Time.  This may change, and just what Cori will do with it is... well, up to her.  The covers are always painted, so there are always changes.  Anyway, here's a look at the beginning.  As with all of my covers, there is a clue hidden here, so you may want to embiggen.  The pic on Instagram has music.

And repercussions are still detonating through the GOP.  And the reasons Republicans are coming up with why they lost so badly are.. well, as demented as the Orange Anus.  My favorite so far was the Congresswoman who tried to push the deceit that Republican voters stayed home from the polls because they were happy.  The absurdity in this comment is... well as unfathomable as her intention in making it.  In fact, it makes me wonder if Orangie my be that catalyst for change America needs.  If not, his corruptness is shaking things up more than they've ever been shaken up before.  Till this entire thing is done, there will be no Republican Party.

And his attorney argued for his power to set tariffs yesterday at the Supreme Court.  The only one truly vocal about his keeping this power was Alito.  The other judges had questions and made statements that sounded a lot like they didn't want Orangie to be able to override the Senate.  Not Alito.  You see, Alito wants a king who will give Conservatives what they want.  He is blind to the fact that Orangie will only ever give himself what he wants.  Alito is an old man, with an old man's brain. 

Well, Shit!

 Well, shit.  And everything had been looking so good.

When I finally got up this morning, the temp outside was already in the 60s (F).  There were other times I got up to check for updates, but the final one, where I threw back the bed linens around 0730 was the "well, shit," one.  Our temps today are predicted to go up into the low 80s (F).  That's very warm for November.  Next week, if the forecasters are correct, we'll barely make it out of the 50s (F).  That's more normal.  

I get to work this afternoon.  That will be interesting.  My recommendation is that if you're planning on any home improvements, get them done now before the pricing goes through the roof.  It will.  Billionaire corporations will be unchallenged.  If you think your grocery bill is expensive now, just wait, you, too will be saying "well, shit," not that a lot of you aren't saying it right now.

So, what went so horribly wrong?  I thought women were going to save the day, and women voted for the Orange Anus in large numbers.  Oh, and as for me calling him the Orange Anus?  I thought I'd soon be able to stop all of that nonsense.  Well, shit.

Of course, many, many people are trying to figure out just what went wrong?  How could a convicted felon be elected president of the United States?  Personally, I think gender had a very major role in who people voted for, not so much race, but rather the fact the Harris is a woman.  I've worked with women for years, had bosses that were women, and when they want to, women can be very catty.  It takes time for them to build up their trust.

But the main reason we now have Trump's Orange Ass in the White House again is that 10 million fewer people voted for Harris than Biden.  So, this is on all of you who stayed home.  And Trump rewards those who vote for him, and he now has almost complete immunity, so if he uses his Executive powers to make Drag illegal nationwide, then it will be an enforceable crime.  Same sex marriage will be gone in the wink of an eye.  Oh, and you'd better get used to losing some of those pronouns that indicate you're diversity.    You will be he or she, and nothing else. Bible studies in all classrooms?  That's a definite.  Oh, and don't think prices are going to go down, he's already promised billionaires and corporations he's going to try and push through another tax cut for them and guess who's going to pay for that?

On a brighter note, my gingko has finally started to turn golden.

Conservatives have always been Bad Losers

 So, we've reached the middle of the week.  The heat and humidity are moving east.  Forecasters are saying to today's high temp might hit 79 (F), not that the past few days have been torrid, really, it's just been heavily humid.  The central air is on, though it seems to rarely run.  

One of the things that's changed since Biggie died is that Lily rarely gets what I used to call her nervous belly.  At least once every two weeks she's stop eating and you could hear her belly making growling noises.  Sometimes she'd throw up clear liquid.  That has all changed, so evidently Biggie must have gotten on her nerves a lot.  Of course, she's also getting spoiled rotten.  It turns out she like to eat bananas, so every morning when I'm making my breakfast she get a couple slices of banana.

Tammy from across the street stopped me yesterday when I was coming back from my Giant Supermarket to ask me about the neighbor on my right.  She told me he was diabetic and that last week an ambulance came, and then she asked if I knew anything.  Gee, I didn't even know he was diabetic.  He and I will talk on occasion, but that's about it.  I just can't be bothered to monitor the activities of everyone who lives on my street.

The lung screening survey turned out to be a bust.  I stopped smoking too many years ago and the possiblity of anything going wrong with my lungs is unlikely.

Some may find this odd but I bought myself a white board to track my exercise / workout routines and hung it on the wall of the computer / cycling / weight training room.   I don't know yet if it will inspire me to be more physically active or not.  Honestly, I think I'm fairly active already.  But being more so can only help.

Yesterday the Supreme Court handed authoritarian conservatives a big loss.  You see, they so desperately feel they need to say "shut up, we're in charge," they tried to change the way elections are run in the states.  If their candidates were losing, or had lost, they wanted to have the state legislatures decide on elections, and some states have what are called super majorities, in which one party runs the state, they could continue to insure elected officials were of the same party.  The Supreme Court said no to that cheat.  And, as might be expected, conservatives are pissed that they got their hand in the cookie jar and they have taken their pissing and moaning to the Internet.  Conservatives have always been bad losers.

The truth about election deniers

Well, here we go, it's Monday, and it's raining, and I have to spend 6 hours at the store (from 10 - 4).  While working is no longer the fun it used to be, I haven't reached the point where I abhor sitting at the flooring desk.  Actually, the only issue I'm having at present is the app we use to punch in.  That's right, punch cards are gone.  Typing in your id number is done only as a last resort, mostly because the touch screen is slow.  And the app, which we've been using for over a year, has recently been updated.  Sometimes it connects through Wi-Fi, and other times you need to turn the Wi-Fi on your phone off.  What a pain in the ass.

I'm getting my car inspected tomorrow.  This is important, since it always happens around this time every year.  Why?  Because I wait at the dealership, and while I'm waiting, I begin the editing process of the next book.  So, while the mechanics are making sure my lights flash, and my horn honks, I'll be making notes and writing in changes in The Body Under Ice.  No spoilers here, but it's quite different.  I mean, what does the population of a town which is basically a seasonal tourist attraction do in the off season?

And for those who don't know.

This is because a lot of Americans believe that the opposing party is trying desperately to destroy a way of life.  All you have to do is look at pictures, or watch videos of a Trump rally to realize that most election deniers are white people.  And not only are they trying to be your governors and senators, they want to be your local council members.  Only you can point your town council in the direction you want them to go.  Conservatives and Christian nationalists desperately want to tell you how to live your life, and they will do this by passing local ordinances which effect you in ways you may not like.  Say Strip Clubs.  Conservative members of your town council may vote to change to zoning laws to either limit their hours, or shut them down.  Or, how about that nice tree lined view from your bedroom balcony?  Your council members may choose to change the zoning for that view from pastoral to residential, where now you get to look across the road at someone else's balcony, or even worse, they might vote to make it commercial, where all those trees which enhance your view are turned into a strip mall.  Democracy is about having a voice in how you live your life.  Change is inevitable, but voting lets you at least try to manage how those changes happen.

The Legacy

My Friday has arrived.  I'd say I'm ecstatic, but relieved is a more fitting description of how I'm feeling.  I had having split days off.  Starting Friday, the real one, however, I'm scheduled for split days off into December.  Son of a bitch!

And yesterday was an odd one at work.  I was the only Specialist scheduled.  Only one aisle associate was scheduled, so after he left at 2 PM, I was left by myself until my shift ended.  While not being retail appropriate, I was lucky because business was slow, most likely because the temps are dropping.  And it was windy.  Many, many of my leaves blew away yesterday.

And I mentioned to a fellow associate, a supporter of the human failure in the White House, how interesting it was that since he lost the election many Republican Governors were now mandating masks.  I am not alone at recognizing this.  The WP is one of several of the 'lamestream' media outlets reporting this.  Guess who looks bad?  Not the Blue states which have managed to somewhat control the virus.  Nope!  It's the Red states, the ones who's ICU's are filling up as I type.  For those how haven't realized it yet, the Idiot Jerk's legacy will be Covid 19 and his total refusal to deal with it.  His party doesn't understand the mantle they are cowering under will stain them for history. 

Michigan was hoot yesterday, wasn't it?  Two Republicans were refusing to certify the election results because... they love to believe in lies.  Not surprisingly, their decision was met with an onslaught of anger and outrage.  You see, the Idiot Jerk lost Michigan by 140 - 150 thousand votes.  No small margin there.  When he heard about it, he Tweeted some sort of celebratory nonsense, however shortly after his Tweet those 2 Republicans reversed their decision, making him look like a fool.  

The Idiot Jerk also had bad luck in Pennsylvania where a Federal Judge as his Court Jester Giuliani what reason they had for trying to disenfranchise the state's 6.8 million voters.  Evidently Giuliani jingled his bells, while doing a little song and dance,  As have been so many judges dealing with this spate of fraudulent charges by the Idiot Jerk, this judge was unimpressed.

 For those interested, my Christmas Cactus is once again preparing to bloom.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,

 it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief , it was the epoch of incredulity.

For those of you who don't know, that's the opening passage in Dickens' "A Tale of Two Cities."  I think it very appropriate to post that this morning.

Did anybody get any sleep last night?  I did... kind of, sort of... so half.  I ended up turning the volume down on my phone because it kept singing to me every time a headline flashed.  So what did I do?  Got my butt out of bed and ordered a new external SSD hard drive, one that just happens to be portable.

I have an old, old external HHD drive that has begun to make noise.  Noise is not a good sign, so I'm prepping myself for it's future demise.

And, what about the election?  Nail-biter? They kept telling us the race was going to be close... but son of a bitch!  Arizona and Nevada will soon be called for Biden, which should put him up at around 240 Electoral Votes.  In fact, I read that Fox had already called Arizona... and the Idiot Jerk flipped out.  Someone is scared shitless... and it isn't Joe.

The Idiot Jerk has falsely declared Victory.  That headline is being echoed around the world.  They can smell his fear.  

I understand the Idiot Jerk has already threatened to go to the Supreme Court.  He wants them to invalidate millions of uncounted votes.  The fact that he's doing this tells us what he thinks is going to happen.  This is sadly amusing, since he believes he's stacked it in his favor with Coney Cumquat.  One of the trending topics on Reddit yesterday was that he's terrified of going to jail if he loses. 

Me?  When I saw the map this morning the red was frightening... and then I saw the blue... and those uncalled states and I started laughing.  This is the best of times, it is the worst of times.

In the Distant Future

 The boo boo paw is gone.  Lily no longer has an ouchy.  This is normal.  From time to time, both dogs get boo boo paws that go away after a few hours.  This is life with dogs.

I had some nice sales go through yesterday.  Actually, sales in the department  flourished.  People are spending money, lots of money.  Here in Conservative Central Pa people believe the virus is going to go away.  We had a previous customer stop by the flooring desk yesterday who nobody remembered, which happens quite frequently when you deal with many customers.  He asked how long we were going to continue wearing masks?  Both I and my fellow associate said "for a long time."  And the customer asked "you don't think masks are going to go away on November 4?"  In unison, myself and my fellow associate said "no."  And the customer looked at us for a second or two and said "oh," and walked away.  Conservatives, unless someone in their immediate family get seriously sick with Covid, they do believe it's like the flu.

Did everybody enjoy the extra hour of sleep this morning?  Me, I looked at my alarm clock and thought, it must not have automatically changed.  It wasn't until I looked at the mantel clock in the cycling / computer room that I realized I had slept right through it. Son of a bitch!

And, of course, we do only have a few days until the election.  The Idiot Jerk is racing around desperately trying keep himself from being a one term president.  One of the things I find most alarming about his presidency, and his party, is their total refusal to move towards the center.  The country is overwhelmingly Centrist and yet they continue to dig themselves ever deeper into the grounds on the far right, almost as if this were their last stand.  In a way, this might be true.  The country is changing far more rapidly then they like.  With each passing day those years they cherish, the late 50's are buried under another shovel full of time.  Their age has not been successful and the world is passing them by.  This is how evolution works.  The survival is based on being the fittest, the most adaptable, not the one who steadfastly refuses to change.  They cannot freeze time and the world in order to satisfy their dying dreams.  This is life.

And, finally, guess what I found on the bed yesterday morning?  A T-Rex.

Like the Republicans, I don't think the T-Rex ever gave any consideration what time was going to do to them.  Now he's a dog toy.  Personally, I don't think we'll ever be playing with an Republican toys in the distant future.

Ossoff Scorches Perdue

The rain has almost stopped.  Looking at the map on Accuweather, it's going to continue tapering off.  The dogs may go for a walk.  Yesterday, during a pause, we did get a quick 'round the block' in.  I find it interesting that they don't like going out in the rain normally, but getting to take a walk?  That's a whole new story.  

So, the elder MAGA head called and complained yesterday... not to me, to my supervisor, about his carpet installation.  He has 3 seams.  His basement isn't wide enough to use a 15 foot wide carpet.  For 45 minutes he whined and complained.  He did complain about the installers.  I was not privy to what he actually said about them, though evidently they ignored him when he tried to tell them how to do their job.  He is an old white man filled with anger and hatred who desperately wants to be an authority.

Okay, so is everybody as ready for this election to be over as I am?  Let's be honest here, this thing has been going on since 2015.  Yep, it never stopped.  The Idiot Jerk managed an Electoral College win and then never stopped campaigning.  He was always feeding his ego with his rallies.  When Covid arrived, he switched them off and turned on his daily TV shit shows.  I am so thankful I don't have cable.  That must have been a true nightmare.  And, as time went on, he continued to demonstrate more and more erratic behavior, saying things only a MAGA head could believe until that day he suggesting injecting Clorox.  Then it stopped, but only briefly.  Now, in a few days, his brain is going to implode.  Now, that might be entertaining.  Think of it as a deliciously political remake of Scanners.

And, if that didn't whet your appetites, here is something truly remarkable, for those who haven't seen it.  Jon Ossoff scorched David Purdue at their last debate.  By last, I'm being serious.  Perdue cancelled their final debate because... well... just watch.

 

The Ornament

I drove down to That Fish Place yesterday.  Getting there is... complicated.  The exit to Landisville is completely closed.  This means you need to drive to the next exit and wind your way back.  The GPS in my was constantly resetting.  The same is true when you leave because... the entire section of road leading to the 283 on-ramp is torn up.  Anyway, I bought 6 Green Lantern Mollies and a snail... I have algae.

I have a dickens of a time deciding on what the winter theme was going to be for my tree.  Snowflakes?  Icicles?  Bears?  Wow!!  What a great idea!  All three combined!  I really like the idea of bears.

Cute and friendly, as long as you keep your distance.  Up close they can be dangerous.  So I bought one, an ornament, not the real thing.  And then I made a video.

And, of course, we only have 13 days until the actual election.  How many people have already voted is beyond me.  Every media outlet  has a different figure, all of them are high.  Reuters is giving a percentage.  According to them around 30% of the total votes cast in 2016 have already been mailed in, with Democrats leading the charge.  One thing you need to keep in mind.  Those ballots are identified by party affiliation, not by candidate.  There's no way we can tell how many Republicans have voted for Biden.

I understand the Idiot Jerk's campaign is running out of money.  He did say he was going to fund some of his campaign himself.  So far, no indication he's doing that.  Instead, they're cutting ad time in certain states.  That's not a 'win, win' strategy.  At this point, he's betting on taking it to the Supreme Court.  To avoid this the Democratic Victory needs to be overwhelming.  Vote Blue, if you haven't.  If not stand in line, do you part, and save the country!

 

John Wick this

Golly Gee!  Today I begin a 6 day stint at work.  Can you see the level of my lack of excitability?  Six days.  Shit.  Then I have 2 days off before I get to work another 6 days in a row.  This is really bad retail scheduling.  Sometime in that 2nd stretch I may have to take a personal day to break things up.
I went to see John Wick 3 last evening.  The movie made a lot of money this past weekend.  For those who don't know, the John Wick series of films is an over the top, uber violent on a comic book level, about a paid assassin who left the business... kind of, until someone kills his dog (movie one).  The amount of violence is laughable, seriously, you find yourself laughing.  This is not high drama... shit, this doesn't even qualify as low drama, but it is entertaining for the most part.  Towards the end the fight scenes did tend to drag out, so on the next installment I'd recommend they practice smarter editing.  For those interested, Keanu Reeves is... well, the same as he's always been.  He is not known for his acting abilities.  His career has survived for so long (like 40 years) because of his ability to choose parts which do no rely on his dramatic skills.   Any sentence more than 8 or 9 words is a stretch, which is fine since dialogue is always where he fails.  I'm sure he prefers his scripts to be about 12 pages long: (fight in library), (fight on balcony), (fight in stairwell) "Oh, shit," (fight in elevator), (fight in alleyway).
Yesterday was election day in PA, all local.  In my precinct we use computerized ballots, however I was told this was the last election for them, that next year we're going to get new voting machines.  I'm sure the Russkies are already working on ways to screw up the 2020 election, so we'll have to see if they can be hacked.
And I saw where some American fighter pilots chased away some evil, Russkie fighter pilots up near Alaska.  Believe me when I tell you this is all part of the Idiot Jerk's blow bro Vlad's plan to disrupt America.
And finally, a few more of my garden pictures.  As I said, the roses are starting to paint things bright with color.

Now, ain't that nice?  Last year the rains of May pretty much washed them all out before I could take pictures.

Personally

So, did everybody enjoy that extra hour of sleep this morning?  I know I did.  Even the dogs enjoyed it.  The only bad thing about it will be that we're going to lose it come spring.
The racist customer called me at work yesterday.  Her flooring was scheduled to be delivered and she hadn't paid attention... at all.  You can pay an extra $20 and get a one hour window, or just pay standard fee and get a phone call 1/2 hour before the truck arrives.  Standard delivery is between 0600 and 2000 (8 PM).  Well, she thought they be hauling her less expensive flooring into her house between 0600 and 0800.  So... I had to correct her error.  She took it well.
A lot of people have been writing about the midterms and not just bloggers.  I don't have cable, but I'm sure if I did every other commercial would be political.  Turn out is supposed to be exceptional.  Write-in ballots are on par with a presidential election.  Nobody wants to have another repeat of the shit show which started in 2016.  Someone in Politco wrote that "this cycle Democrats will crawl across broken glass" to vote.  Were that only the case.  There are voters registered Democrat who will not cast a vote because... they just don't care.  They will come up with some excuse.  In Pennsylvania, storms are forecast for Tuesday afternoon.  For some people, that's a really good excuse.  "I might get rained on."  Their minds don't even think about the alternative.  They see the racism and hatred in our Capital and say things like..."well, it doesn't effect me personally."  They don't understand that is how fascism starts, when people start saying "it doesn't effect me personally."  And then it's too late.  Power is the most corrupting force in the Universe.  Democracy fights that corruption.  Democracy takes the power from a few and gives it to the many.  Not voting permits those corrupt few the power to control your destiny.  And for those who say "it doesn't effect me personally," believe me, they will roll you over with a steamroller if you give them the power to do so.  They do not care about you 'personally.'  All they care about is their power and their control.
Go out and vote on Tuesday.  Your future is at stake.
Vote Blue.

Teach them a lesson

There is a thin red line running like a razor through out parts of this country.  Slicing rights into shreds, this sharp blade wielded by Conservatives stabs at democracy and hacks away freedoms.  The scar tissue left behind is filled with broken people whose lives have been diminished.  Their goal is a Faith based country in which the majority will be outsiders, ostracized and beaten back and crushed.  How do we stop this evil?

Vote.

Blue.

Today is primary day in Pennsylvania.  The decision is up to you.  Vote and triumph, or stay home and succumb.  Your life, your choice, your democracy, is far more precious than they believe.

Teach them a lesson.

Yo... look... here comes November

There was no surprise yesterday when the Idiot Jerk in the White House pulled out of the Iran Nuclear Treaty.  This was the expected step from the egocentric douche a minority of Americans managed to get elected.  White Republicans have removed another of Obama's, our first black president, achievements.  They will tell you racism has nothing to do with it, but it does.  They will also tell you that the Idiot Jerk, in spite of 4 bankruptcies and who knows how many failed deals, is a deal maker.  That is really a major part of the Idiot Jerk's problem.  He loves to sell himself as being shrewd.  Just like he loves to sell himself as being very, very rich.  And the GOP does love their phonies.  This is their mindset.  They are so terribly wrong.
Every Republican president since Eisenhower has left the economy either shattered or in tatters.  And every Republican failure has been blamed on someone or something else.  That's how their disinformation works.  Someone else is always at fault.  The truth is Reagan's Trickle Down Economics was a bandage program at best and why it began failing halfway through his 2nd term.  No matter how bad things get they refuse to admit their policies are subpar.
Get ready, gas prices are going to go up.  The $$$ you spend are the pump are going to increase... dramatically.  That's another fact.  Every time there's a Republican in the White House gas becomes expensive.  That's because the oil we pump out of Texas and Oklahoma and Kansas and Alaska gets sold overseas.  Oil companies make more money exporting than they do selling to Americans.  That's a rather sad statement, but clearly defines American Capitalism.  It's all about the buckos.  Oops, there goes that great tax cut.
On a lighter note - I rode 13.7 miles yesterday.  Sorry, no sweaty photos.  This morning was going to be free weights but that didn't happen.  I also get to go to work today.  And then I'm off tomorrow.  Of course, then I will have to work for 5 days in a row.  That' sucks.  Then it will be 2 days off and then... are you ready for this?.. I'll get to work 6 days without a day off. 
We are approaching our Memorial Day weekend which is... our busiest weekend in the year.  And you though that was the Black Friday weekend.  Nope.  Gas grills and mulch fly out of the store.  People by $1000 patio sets.  Everybody wants a freaking bamboo blind... we don't sell them in the store, sorry.  This means I'm going to be putting in pretty many hours, but then we head into June and things begin to slow down.  That's when I'll move back to 32 hour work weeks.
After yesterday's sour announcement by the Idiot Jerk in the White House... remember, November is approaching much faster than the GOP wants.  They already know they're going to lose the House.  The time has come to take back the damn Senate and cook their asses.

Vote Blue and watch the Idiot Jerk cry.

Not Compelling Enough

Well, it's Saturday.  Weather forecasters are calling for snow.  How much?  They can't decide so a good guess might be anywhere from 1 to 6 inches.  Right now it's sunny in Central PA.
Yesterday I went to see my Mom.  She has 2 remote controls for her television.  About 3 weeks ago she lost one of them and my sister bought her a 2nd, then sometime last week the one she'd lost turned up.  Both work.  She's fine as long as she doesn't think one of them is her phone.  She does that every now and then and presses the wrong buttons and the TV tries to play something from a non-existent BlueRay player.
Mueller announced 13 (lucky number for the Idiot Jerk) indictments yesterday.  The Idiot Jerk and his supporters are totally avoiding the most obvious implication:  that the Ruskies were working really, really hard to keep Clinton out of the White House.  I'd say that's a pretty good indicator they don't have any 'golden shower' videos of her.  You know?  The kind they can use for blackmail?  And his supporters are so funny, especially since this is rather bad news for them.  Just think how many of them voted for him because they Ruskies knew which of their buttons to press.  It's either that, or they're just plain stupid.
I watched some of "Altered Carbon" last evening.  It's not bad.  The idea of putting your consciousness into a different human sleeve is rather intriguing.  I kept thinking that this is what "Blade Runner 2049" was trying to be, and what it never quite accomplished.  I think it suffers from the same problems many of these episodic series have; not every episode is essential in the telling of the story.  Joel Kinnaman, who plays the lead, does a fine job at looking good, but his character comes across as too cool, too unsympathetic.  He does things to help others not because he cares, but sees these actions as necessary to get something else accomplished.

Will I watch the rest of the series?  Probably not.  As I said, I find it intriguing which is, however, a lot different than being compelling.

I saw where Mitt Romney made some sour grapes comments alleging Obama's victory had more to do with gifts to young blacks and Latinos then anything else.  Doesn't this sound a bit racist, especially when coming from an older white guy?  I suppose he must be appealing to all of those racists whose whose election night tweets were a reflection of the ugly side of America.  Like so many Republicans he is in denial.  In their minds there is no logical way they could have lost this past election which means they need to blame somebody or something.  This is quite normal with Republicans.  There is never a moment when they look at themselves in the mirror and admit to screwing up.  No, they are like that aging woman who paints her face with pounds of make up in order to convince herself she is still a porcelain beauty.  Like that old woman, they will eventually die still unaware the porcelain has cracked.  While there is some apparent bipartisanship jockeying right now history tells us the Republicans will shit it away because in their minds they can not be wrong.  If  you see anything even remotely resembling change it will only be one faction attempting to throw another faction under the bus.

Has the GOP already lost?

And you can bet they are already plotting the next presidential election.  I suspect they will run a white man for president and a token black, Latin, or woman as vice president.  Why?  Because they've tried using that playbook before:  McCain and Palin, a party ticket made in hell.  They don't understand.  For some reason they feel all they need to do is run a token to get votes.  People aren't that foolish.  They're not going to fall for the bait and switch.  Unless the GOP begins roasting some of the far right chestnuts no one is going to believe they've moved even marginally to the center.  What I suspect you'll see is more blame.  They may need to lose three elections in a row before they stop hitting the snooze button on realities alarm clock.